Ghostly Image Damages Officer's Car

Surveillance video shows a ghost-like wisp of wind whirling around the car, ripping off the mirror, tossing it around a bit and then dropping
right back beneath the door.

"At the end of his shift, he went out to his car and found his rear view mirror had been damaged and it was lying there next to his vehicle," said Lt.
Brian Foley, spokesman for the Hartford Police Department.

At first, the officer assumed it was the work of vandals, but investigators saw something much more unusual when they looked at surveillance video of
the lot.

I saw one little one form where the street met an alley with a high fence. It was just forming and a kid with a baseball cap stepped around the
corner. As he covered his face with his hands his hat flew straight up about 20 feet and then shot across the street. It remains to this day, one of
the coolest things I have ever seen.

Yet, that's exactly what it looks like in the video. If it looks like one, and acts like one, why is it "definitely" not one? Do you have some
other evidence to support this statement? The video seems quite clear.

All Seeing Eye
Dust Devils never bring back what they have blown away......

Dust devils can dissipate as quickly as they form, dropping anything they may have had. Again, the video is quite clear.

Well, I have lived in the Mojave desert for over 25 years, and I'm gonna have to disagree with you.

Why can't a dust devil "bring back what it has blown away"?

In this case I cant see a minor wind, such as what you find in a dust devil,
especially this one, the energy to tear off a rear view mirror from a car. That is if the mirror wasn't already damaged and hanging there with scotch
tape.

This, What ever did not have the form for a dust devil. They are tightly wound about the center just like a tornado, but this thing did not hold its
form. It didn't even have the energy of a mild dust devil. The vehicle didn't even move, none of the vehicles moved. If it had the force to tear
off a rear view mirror, it should have had enough energy to at least shake one of the cars.

Besides, mirrors, antennas are attached to vehicles to withstand interstate speeds, 70+ mph. Did anyone notice winds of this magnitude in the video?
Did anyone see in the video where the wind pushed, threw something into the rear view mirror, knocking it off?

In this case I cant see a minor wind, such as what you find in a dust devil, especially this one, the energy to tear off a rear view mirror from a
car. That is if the mirror wasn't already damaged and hanging there with scotch tape.

I'm not sure what you are speaking of when you say "minor wind", but I can assure you that absolutely no wind is need for a dust devil to form.

A dust devil is formed by a thermal updraft. When an area on the ground (desert, tarmac, PARKING LOT, etc) collects enough heat one area and can no
longer hold it, the heat travels upwards (as it is supposed to do) and creates a vortex. You could be 2 feet away from one and not feel any wind as it
tends to stay self contained.

Regarding the mirror, yes, they are rated for highway speeds while the vehicle is traveling FORWARD. I highly doubt that a mirror is designed to
withstand 70+mph wind traveling reverse or in a 45 degree angle.

Well, I have lived in the Mojave desert for over 25 years, and I'm gonna have to disagree with you.

Why can't a dust devil "bring back what it has blown away"?

In this case I cant see a minor wind, such as what you find in a dust devil,
especially this one, the energy to tear off a rear view mirror from a car. That is if the mirror wasn't already damaged and hanging there with
scotch tape.

This, What ever did not have the form for a dust devil. They are tightly wound about the center just like a tornado, but this thing did not hold its
form. It didn't even have the energy of a mild dust devil. The vehicle didn't even move, none of the vehicles moved. If it had the force to tear
off a rear view mirror, it should have had enough energy to at least shake one of the cars.

Besides, mirrors, antennas are attached to vehicles to withstand interstate speeds, 70+ mph. Did anyone notice winds of this magnitude in the video?
Did anyone see in the video where the wind pushed, threw something into the rear view mirror, knocking it off?

My conclusion stands, its no dust devil!

Dust Devil.

edit on 11-11-2013 by All Seeing Eye because: (no reason given)

I think it's important to keep in mind that a whirlwind is only visible because of the material it picks up. In this case it's in a parking lot
where there is relatively little loose material on the ground unlike what would be found in a desert. This makes it hard to determine how large or
tightly wound the vortex is. Also, if you look closely it appears from the rotation that the force of the whirlwind hits the mirror on the flat side
rather than the aerodynamically contoured front side. I imagine it's also possible that the mirror wasn't as secure as it could be. I once had the
driver's side mirror of an S10 I owned fall off at far less than highway speed and upon inspection there were cracks on the mount of the remaining
mirror.

In actual fact, I did a rudimentary study of small scale wind vortex motion when I was six years old. There was this particular area of our schools
playground, which was boxed in on three sides by the assembly hall on one side, the corridor between there and the section reserved for the younger
students (between four and a half and seven years of age) and the section itself. In this area of the playground, vorteces would form on a fairly
regular basis, because the prevailing wind would create eddies and whirlwinds as it passed over the space between the sections of the building.

When they formed, these vortex like movements would pick up any debris on the ground, like leaves, small twigs, sand and so on, and spin them around.
One afternoon in autumn, I went out with a notepad, and drew a chalk circle with three lines across its diametre at equal intervals, in a location
where I knew these vortex things would often form. Using the lines that I had drawn as a rough guide, I was able to ascertain that on six occasions
out of ten, the debris which had been picked up by the vortex, and spun around, did in fact land within one segments width of its original starting
position. Of course, being six, and having done this on my own, it perhaps was not the most scientific of experiments, and certainly not the most
effective I have ever undertaken, but still.

It is only when these types of wind grow much larger and more powerful, that an item can be expected to end up far enough from its original location,
that locating the item later becomes tiresome. An example would be the trash vortex I witnessed at a rock festival once. It took up anything that was
lightweight and not pinned down, and carried things like trash bags, food wrappers, rolling papers (oooohhhh yeah!) and a plethora of other bits of
crap, a good hundred feet into the air, before depositing most of its haul in some unfortunate farmers field a good few hundred metres horizontal
distance away, over the fence, and outside the festival site itself.

I work in The Pilbara region of Western Australia and we experience at least 20 dust devils or more every day in summer. Our nickname for them is
Willy Willy or Wirly Wirly depending on which part of Oz you hale from.

Their size can range from very small to very large, roughly 20metres in diameter and reach a kilometre into the air. Some are strong enough to make a
car rock from side to side BUT I have never seen any strong enough to rip the side mirror off a vehicle.

I work in The Pilbara region of Western Australia and we experience at least 20 dust devils or more every day in summer. Our nickname for them is
Willy Willy or Wirly Wirly depending on which part of Oz you hale from.

Their size can range from very small to very large, roughly 20metres in diameter and reach a kilometre into the air. Some are strong enough to make a
car rock from side to side BUT I have never seen any strong enough to rip the side mirror off a vehicle.

S & F.

I have to agree with you. I have had metal sheds destroyed by Dust Devils, garbage cans throw about, and even been in the middle of one.
But in no way can I accept a dust devil ripping a rear view mirror off a car. Again, unless that rear view mirror was held on with scotch tape. That I
could believe.

Agreed, a dust devil can only be seen by the dust and debris it collects. So is someone saying this parking lot gets swept clean every day? The
"dust" or what ever it is, is white. I have never seen a white dust devil......

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